This application claims priority to Korean Application No. 2002-7993, filed Feb. 14, 2002, in the Korean Industrial Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for and a method of manufacturing a collimator, and more particularly, to an apparatus for and a method of automatically assembling a pigtail and a glass tube having a gradient index lens into a collimator.
2. Description of the Related Art
A so-called collimator refers to an optical communication device, which transforms light received from a light source into a beam of parallel rays. The collimator is usually employed, as a component, in a variety of equipment, such as optical communication equipment, semiconductor equipment and so on.
A general collimator 10, as shown in FIG. 1, includes a pigtail 12 and a GRIN (gradient index) lens, both being mutually arranged on a coaxial line, a glass tube 15 receiving and supporting the pigtail 12 and the GRIN lens 14, and a metal sleeve 16 formed on an outside of the glass tube 15 to protect the glass tube 15.
In the pigtail 12 made of glass is provided at least one fiber 13 forming an incidence channel of light in one end of the pigtail 12, through which the light is transmitted. In the other end of the pigtail 12 is formed a first inclined side 12a oblique to the coaxial line.
In one end of the GRIN lens 14 displaced coaxially with the pigtail 12 is formed a second inclined side 14a corresponding to the first inclined side 12a of the pigtail 12. The first inclined side 12a of the pigtail 12 and the second inclined side 14a of the GRIN lens 14 are disposed to be parallel and to face each other.
To manufacture the collimator 10 with this configuration, the GRIN lens 14 is fixedly inserted into the glass tube 15. The one end of the GRIN lens 14, on which the second inclined side 14a is formed, is inserted into the glass tube 15 and the other end thereof protrudes from the glass tube 15 by a predetermined distance to be exposed to an outside of the glass tube 15.
If the GRIN lens 14 is supportedly received in one side of the glass tube 15, the pigtail 12 is inserted thereinto from the other side thereof. The other end of the pigtail 12, on which the first inclined side 12a is formed, is received within the glass tube 15 and then the first inclined side 12a of the pigtail 12 is disposed to face the second inclined side 14a of the GRIN lens 14 already supportedly inserted within the glass tube 15.
The first inclined side 12a of the pigtail 12 is disposed to be parallel to the second inclined side 14a of the GRIN lens 14 through a manually aligning process to comply with predetermined conditions for optical properties of the collimator 10. Thereafter, if the collimator 10 complies with the predetermined conditions, the pigtail 12 is fixed within the glass tube 15.
If the GRIN lens 14 and the pigtail 12 are supportedly received within the glass tube 15, the glass tube 15 is inserted into the tube-shaped metal sleeve 16. Then, the glass tube 15 and the metal sleeve 16 are coated with an epoxy resin 17, and they are fixedly combined with each other. With these processes, the manufacturing of the collimator 10 is completed.
However, since the conventional collimator 10 is manually manufactured, a production efficiency is remarkably reduced, and product reliability is also decreased accordingly. In addition, a relatively long time period is required to produce the collimator. As a result, productivity of the collimator 10 is remarkably reduced.
The present invention has been made to overcome the above and other problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for and a method of automatically manufacturing a collimator.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for and a method of automatically manufacturing a collimator of which a product reliability increases and of which a productivity is improved by shortening a manufacturing time period.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
These and other objects of the present invention may be achieved by providing an apparatus for manufacturing a collimator. The collimator manufacturing apparatus includes a loading part being loaded with a glass tube, into which a GRIN lens is fixedly inserted, and a pigtail formed with at least one fiber, an angle aligning part allowing the pigtail to be inserted into the glass tube and aligning the pigtail and the GRIN lens coaxially, a spot aligning part controlling the pigtail with respect to the GRIN lens to have a desired optical property, with which the first inclined side of the pigtail is aligned with the second inclined side of the GRIN lens, and a dispensing part attaching the pigtail to the glass tube when the angle and spot alignments of the pigtail with the GRIN lens are completed.
According to an aspect of the present invention, the apparatus includes a disk-shaped rotatable turn table, wherein the loading part, the angle aligning part, the spot aligning part and the dispensing part are disposed on a circumference along the turntable.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the apparatus includes a station controlling part controlling the angle aligning part, the spot aligning part and the dispensing part according to a rotation operation of the turntable so as to allow an angle aligning operation, a spot aligning operation and a dispensing operation to be performed.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the loading part includes a tube holder supporting the glass tube into which the GRIN lens is fixedly inserted, a pigtail holder provided in an upper side of the tube holder to chuck the pigtail, and a rotation moving part moving and rotating the pigtail holder toward the tube holder.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the angle aligning part and the spot aligning part respectively include an image displaying part displaying an angle aligning state and a spot aligning state between the pigtail and the GRIN lens.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the dispensing part includes an adhesive spraying part spraying an adhesive into a space between the glass tube and the pigtail.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, these and other objects may also be achieved by providing a method of manufacturing a collimator having a glass tube, a GRIN lens, and a pigtail having at least one fiber. The method includes inserting the GRIN lens into the glass tubes, loading the glass tube and the pigtail, inserting the pigtail into the glass tube and aligning the pigtail and the GRIN lens coaxially, controlling an optical property between the pigtail and the GRIN lens, and attaching the pigtail to the glass tube.